Letter: Vote 'no' on charter change

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Saratoga Springs is a wonderful and successful community.

According to The Saratogian, Saratoga Springs has received positive coverage this year from the Travel+Leisure Magazine, Livability.com, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post and ABC World News with Diane Sawyer. Plus, I remember glowing stories from NBC, The New York Times and additional publications.

The head of the prestigious national American Planning Association added more praise in presenting the city another award for having one of the 10 best downtown streets in America. To quote, "Forward thinking and planning" and "thanks to the efforts of city leaders, business owners and residents."

Other proof our city is doing well:

First, I see the recently proposed 2014 city budget will result in a minor tax decrease, yes decrease, while increasing staffing and services.

Second, under Saratoga's own commission form of government, we've been able to both tighten our belt and provide the desired and necessary services while rebuilding our reserves to protect the city from any future national economic downturns.

Therefore, I don't understand why the proposal has been made to change us to the city manager form of government. This is a radically different approach to governing that is less democratic and has resulted in significantly poorer results throughout upstate New York.

Just a question. Is there another city in upstate New York you'd prefer to live in? I can't think of one. And I give a good portion of the credit for the city's achievements to our commission form of city government and its special mix of transparency, accountability, and responsibility that lets us keep the politicians who are working successfully for us and throw the "bums" out quickly.

Let's protect our city by voting "no" to the charter change proposal on the November ballot.